Thursday, January 21, 2016

Is the "70% Rule" for Impact of Lab Tests an Urban Myth???


  • For update that actually HAS a 70% data source, see here.


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For years we have heard that "70% of clinical decisions rely on lab tests."  While there is no question that lab tests are very often pivotal to a patient's management, a few years ago Mike Hallworth published a two page article that decimates the evidence base for this quotation.

Hallworth is a clinical biochemist in England; his 2011 paper is open access at Annals of Clinical Biochemistry, here.





Hallworth MJ (2011) The 70% claim: what is the evidence base?  Ann Clin Biochem 48:487-8.  (PMID 22045648)

See also discussion and citation by footnote in an International Federal of Clinical Chemistry deck by Khosrow Adeli and Simon Shorter, available online, here.